The members of the Church shall not indiscriminately marry their children to heretics.
The adverb indiscriminately is used here in an unfamiliar way. As an American Baby-Boomer, my immediate understanding might be that this allowed marriage to some heretics but not to others. Of course, such is not the case. Marriage was not (and is not) to be handled indifferently, therefore the union of an orthodox believer and a heretic was not to occur.
Discernment of a prospective spouse's spirituality can be clouded by emotion, either by the parent hoping to see his child married to a seemingly godly person, or by the couple themselves while spending time together developing the relationship. Does the hopeful future spouse hold to or espouse those things that are contrary to sound doctrine? Is the held opinion one of misunderstanding God's word or of mischaracterization? Is the person of the triune God upheld or impugned? Is the fullness of the Lord Jesus' person and work believed and confessed or discarded?
The adverb indiscriminately is used here in an unfamiliar way. As an American Baby-Boomer, my immediate understanding might be that this allowed marriage to some heretics but not to others. Of course, such is not the case. Marriage was not (and is not) to be handled indifferently, therefore the union of an orthodox believer and a heretic was not to occur.
Discernment of a prospective spouse's spirituality can be clouded by emotion, either by the parent hoping to see his child married to a seemingly godly person, or by the couple themselves while spending time together developing the relationship. Does the hopeful future spouse hold to or espouse those things that are contrary to sound doctrine? Is the held opinion one of misunderstanding God's word or of mischaracterization? Is the person of the triune God upheld or impugned? Is the fullness of the Lord Jesus' person and work believed and confessed or discarded?
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